The hottest Bug Fixing Substack posts right now

A missing period in an email was a perplexing issue that affected only specific customers due to the line length limitations in the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
The bug was traced back to the SMTP client code and the line length rule, which duplicated periods at the beginning of lines longer than a certain limit, causing them to disappear.
The issue showcased the importance of understanding underlying protocols like SMTP to troubleshoot and fix unexpected problems efficiently.

Personal Computers were gaining popularity in 1983, despite being considered toys by some programmers, and had promising applications developed for them.
Taking a risk to work in Personal Computer Software Development led to a successful job offer and opportunity to solve a challenging memory limitation issue.
Facing skepticism and disrespect at the company, the individual showcased exceptional bug-solving abilities, but ultimately chose to leave due to being labeled unfairly.

A good unit test should be idempotent and independent/atomic.
Unit tests should be fast by mocking dependencies to not delay the development process.
Unit test code is as important as product code and should follow guidelines for elegant code.

There are two main types of bugs - those that cause code to break and those that are logical errors, which are harder to fix as the code runs without generating a traceback.
Current platforms like Substack and Ghost have limitations in displaying code blocks, lacking proper syntax highlighting and tools for pointing out specific lines.
Developing utility functions to isolate and troubleshoot problematic code can make it easier to maintain and use in larger projects, ultimately saving time and effort in the long run.

Bugs are inevitable in software development, and fixing bugs is a crucial part of the process.
Developers tend to fix their own bugs faster than bugs introduced by other developers.
Testing early in development helps catch and resolve bugs more efficiently.

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The app's creator derived inspiration for the 2FA app from spotting interesting patterns in the codes, like counting sequences and repeated numerical patterns.
The concept was proven through a proof of concept demonstrating local code generation and push notifications for rare interesting codes.
The app development process included tackling challenges like storing multiple 2FA accounts securely, implementing interestingness features, and improving performance with optimized processing tasks and notifications.

It's best to build products with accessibility from the beginning to save costs and get better results.
Making an app accessible later can be challenging and lead to a backlog of accessibility bugs.
In the real world, retrofitting for accessibility may be necessary, and it's valuable to focus on educating teams, ensuring new developments are accessible, and tackling a subset of accessibility issues at a time.

According to MIT, over 100 errors exist in every thousand lines of code, which can have serious consequences like known human deaths.
Software defects cost more than $2 trillion annually, emphasizing the need for better software development methods.
While AI can assist in creating safer code, it's essential to explore new approaches beyond just relying on machine learning models.

Having unit tests for SQL queries can help catch bugs introduced during code refactorings or changes.
When writing unit tests for SQL queries, focus on testing the specific parts responsible for building the query rather than the entire method.
Refactoring code for testability can involve moving pure functions outside of the class for easier testing and simplifying methods to focus on specific tasks.